Zachary Quinto Is an Unconventional Doctor in ‘Brilliant Minds’ Trailer

What is the limit between being a genius and being insane? Sometimes it’s pretty hard to tell, but some people are willing to push reality to the very limit in order to find out. That’s the case with Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto), a neurologist whose cases will be unveiled in the new NBC series Brilliant Minds. In the medical series, the doctor will use unconventional methods to treat his patients and baffle everyone when they start to work. The series is set to premiere on September 23.

In the trailer unveiled by NBC this week, we find out that Dr. Wolf is the kind of professional that gives medical directors and lawyers a headache. Just in the few scenes we see, the neurologist takes patients outside the hospital for a change of scene, invites old and fragile people to ride his motorcycle and swims in the Hudson river. His reasoning is valid: he wants to change the way that the world sees his patients — from miserable individuals with memory problems to people who can resemble their past selves to friends and family.

The trailer for Brilliant Minds also reveals that Dr. Wolf has a condition called Prosopagnosia, which means that the man is unable to memorize or recognize faces. This is part of the reason why Wolf decides to make a difference: since he’s not able to remember patients’ facial emotions in the long term, he decided to search for ways to provide more permanent care that other doctors often ignore.

Is Brilliant Minds Based On a Real Story?

If the kind of stories that the Brilliant Minds trailer reveals sound even vaguely familiar, it’s because Quinto’s Dr. Wolf is based on one of the most famous neurologists in the world. Dr. Oliver Sacksrevolutionized medicine by trying unconventional approaches to his patients. His methods were famously depicted in the Academy Award-winning movie Awakenings, which starred Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Unconventional treatments have been featured in practically all medical series, including famous and long-running titles like Grey’s Anatomy, ER and especially House, M.D. However, it’s not often that the treatment is the main thread of the show. Brilliant Minds is written and created by Michael Grassi, who previously wrote for Riverdale and Schitt’s Creek.

The cast of Brilliant Minds also features Tamberla Perry (They Cloned Tyrone), Ashleigh LaThrop (The Handmaid’s Tale), Alex MacNicoll (13 Reasons Why), Aury Krebs (Leverage: Redemption), Spence Moore II (All American), Teddy Sears (Chicago Fire), Gray Powell (Sort Of), Dorrett White (What We Do In the Shadows) and Donna Murphy (The Gilded Age).

NBC and Peacock premiere Brilliant Minds on September 23.